Tag Archives: American Red Cross

5 organizations with apps worth downloading

There is an app for pretty much everything these days, whether you want help with yoga, looking at the stars, getting to sleep or maybe you just need to keep all your affairs in order.

However, not every app is in it for the money. There are nonprofit apps out there that are worth more than a passing glance. With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of some of the best nonprofit apps available today.

First Aid App by American Red Cross1I don’t know about you, but when it comes to first aid, I’m clueless. Anything that involves more than a Band-Aid and I have to look online for advice. This cool app can help you along the way by teaching you first aid, giving you quizzes to improve your knowledge. With its built-in content, you won’t have to worry about finding a signal in a moment of peril. iTunes and AndroidContinue reading →

Social fundraising tool for nonprofits turns messages into donations

Nonprofits may be interested in what HelpAttack! brings to the social fundraising party. When a donor uses HelpAttack!, each tweet or Facebook update can be a donation, with no need to tag, re-post or change your habits as a donor. It’s a way to seamlessly add giving to your online life.

HelpAttack! was the brainchild of Sarah Vela, David J. Neff and myself. Everybody was asking Sarah to donate, and before long she was saturated with asks. What if, she thought, the message itself – the tweet, the donation link, the uploaded photo of a proto-mustache – was the donation?

The concept is simple: a penny a tweet could be donated to your favorite nonprofit or cause, no matter what the tweet is about.

Her idea was simple: a penny a tweet could be donated to your favorite nonprofit or cause, no matter what the tweet is about. No need to tag, retweet or change your social media habits in any way. And a more harmonious, slightly less spammy Twitterverse.

Since its initial rollout, HelpAtack! has expanded on that original idea. HelpAttack! has added Facebook pledges and features for cause organizations to create their own page and messaging. Recently, we added a few additional types of pledges: You can now give when someone else tweets or when hashtags and other terms appear on Twitter. Simply decide which organization will receive your donations, assign a donation amount per tweet or Facebook update (or assigned hashtag or term), a maximum donation amount and tweet or update, away. Continue reading →

Integrate social components into your site’s design and function

If you’re considering revamping your website to include social elements like the Facebook Like button, streaming from YouTube, or adding information from a social site through its API, it can be overwhelming to know where to begin. There are many ways to “get social,” and so many reasons for doing so. Primarily, it’s about creating a fundamentally engaging experience for the website visitor that brings them closer to your organization.

The process of considering how to get social starts with considering goals.

Why integrate social into your website?

Ask yourself: what do you want to accomplish for your organization using social media? Having a goal seeks to address why you might want to make your website social. By thinking first about the goals, you clear a path for the decisions around which tools you’ll use to get there.

There are five main reasons for integrating social media with your website:

To build followers within the nonprofit’s social media spaces

Create on-site engagement

Develop a sense of community on the website

Raise funds

Create a call to action

In our review of many social websites, we noticed that some websites have at least two primary goals for placing social media on their website. Think about separating your goals into “priority” and “lesser priority.” Don’t be afraid to begin with one or two primary goals, while testing frequently at the outset to see whether or not your goals are being achieved. Gradually, you can add more social media integrations as your initial goals are achieved.

Categories of integration

Categories of integration address what you might do to meet your goals, and how you would do it. While reviewing websites, we specifically looked at the different types of social media that organizations were integrating into their websites. We categorized the (almost limitless) social media integration possibilities into six categories:

Show

Share

Interact

Co-create

Authenticate

Open source

Each category is exhibited by different tools, technology, and/or approaches. Here are some examples of categories and how they might be implemented within a website:

Show – Recent Tweets, Likes, Comments

Share – Like & Tweet Button, E-Card, Fwd to Friend

Interact – FB Live Stream, Hashtag (Tweet Chat), Comments

Co-Create – Shared Content: Mapping, Mosaic, Wiki, Links, Games

Authenticate – FB Login, Twitter OAuth

Open Source – API

Some of the items above are simple widgets and plug-and-play doodads that allow one to take a little snippet of code and incorporate it onto a Web page. With services like Disqus, even complicated features like comments can be added to a page in literally minutes.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are uses of technology to create unique “co-create” opportunities, if not open opportunities, where content can be made available through APIs and syndication for others to use. Check out the Brooklyn Museum’s API documentation for some pretty advanced tech sharing. Continue reading →